The background of the invention is the automated detection of playing balls after they have been selected or drawn from a prescribed number of playing balls. To allow them to be played, typical games with playing balls to be drawn, such as for example lotto, bingo, etc., require an automatic gaming machine, by which an objective generation of random numbers is ensured. For the player, the randomness of the result of the game should be clearly evident, in particular the player should be given the feeling that the drawing is carried out without any manipulations to his or her detriment. For this reason, gaming machines which, in addition to the automated drawing of playing balls, also perform an automated identification of the playing balls, are used in the prior art.
The prior art discloses many different procedures in which the playing balls are provided with transponder chips and the identification is performed by way of RFID. Other systems use barcodes for identifying the playing balls. Yet other systems use cameras and special algorithms in order to identify the symbols printed or stamped on the playing balls.
What is problematic about all these methods is that the positioning of the balls for being recorded by the camera must take place very precisely, in order to achieve a clear identification of the symbols depicted on the balls.
The invention therefore addresses the problem of improving the identification or an identification of the balls and providing a method and an apparatus with which the detection of the balls is improved and is less susceptible to errors.
The invention solves the problem in the case of a method of the type mentioned at the beginning by the features of the characterizing part of patent claim 1.
The invention solves this problem in the case of an apparatus of the type mentioned at the beginning by the features of the characterizing part of patent claim 9.